Based on Stephen Sondheim’s musical of the same name and adapted to the screen by James Lapine, Into The Woods stars Merryl Streep, Emily Blunt, Anna Kendrick, James Corden, Chris Pines, & Billy Magnussen. 

Premise: A witch tasks a childless baker and his wife with procuring magical items from classic fairy tales to reverse the curse put on their family tree.

Review: I thought I was the musicals loving kind but turns out I’m not. I could barely sit through Les Misérables and the only reason I sat through Into The Woods was its comedic aspects. It was almost a parody at times, they didn’t seem to be taking themselves too seriously, so it was funny. Not laughing out loud funny but it put a smile on my face. 

There is a wonderful combination of all the famous fairy-tales in one story. They’ve incorporated the drama, the comedy of these tales, and obviously added a music into the new story. They’ve humanized our fairy tales characters, adding a little more edge to them, making the story is somewhat interesting but not enough for me to be invested in it.

Although the singing was good – I’m talking quality here – I wasn’t blown away by the songs, I didn’t once want to sing along and I can’t remember a particular song I like, except maybe the Merryl Streep one from the trailer. 

It’s a nice ensemble of a cast, they’ve picked the right people for the right roles. Depp is right in his wheelhouse but he’s not on long enough to be annoying. Streep struggled to get me on board with her character but by the end I was in. James Corden & Emily Blunt are a lovely pair, they were great together and Blunt really impressed me – mostly because her and musicals, I mean singing, didn’t ring true – she was good and really stood out for me. One last thing about the cast, I liked Pines in the movie ONLY because he delivered my favorite quote from the film “I was praised to be charming, not sincere.”

I might not have liked the film but you maybe did so let’s talk about it: tweet, comment, or DM me?